Catching them young with traffic lessons

A Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus runs over a two-wheeler rider, who lost balance after a car hit his vehicle. A young woman is on her way to a grocery store on her two-wheeler, when she is hit by a car driven by a man in an inebriated state.

CCTV footages and video clips of incidents that occur on the city’s roads every day because someone somewhere did not follow basic traffic rules were the weapons of the Bangalore City Traffic Police.

In association with the National Road Safety Organisation, the Traffic Police has decided to “catch them young” by screening such footages to students of the Mahila Seva Samaja Education Institution here on Monday.

“The main objective of the awareness drive is to ask children to follow traffic rules, educate their elders and respect traffic police,” said S. Sathyapal, president, National Road Safety Organisation.

A total of 14 such awareness programmes have been conducted in schools so far. The police aims to cover around 100 schools by the end of the academic year. Students are taught basic traffic rules and the phone numbers they need to know in case of accidents.

“What many people don’t know is that the 108 ambulances are well equipped with all the basic measures to be taken on the spot, which other ambulances do not have. So make sure you call 108 when you come across an accident,” Rama Ratna, traffic inspector from the Basavanagudi station, advised the students.

Deeksha Bharathwaj, student of Mahila Seva Samaj, said, “I lost my uncle in a road accident, so I could connect with the clippings that were shown to us. To abide by the rules is something very important and I will make sure my family members follow all the rules.”

Students are being showed videos and CCTV footages of road accidents